But as the halving approached it rebounded to nearly $10,000, in sharp contrast to other physical financial assets struggling during the current pandemic.

Analysts are divided over whether the halving will see the price of bitcoin go up as supply runs down or if it will have a limited impact. Coin Corner chief executive Danny Scott said bitcoin could potentially reach $1m within half a decade.

Jake Yocom-Piatt, co-founder and project lead at cryptocurrency Decred, told Forbes halving would be a positive event for bitcoin and cryptocurrencies.

“A pandemic is very much a deflationary type event. Economic activity is going to take a real nosedive. The halving of bitcoin is a necessarily deflationary action,” he said.

This will be the third halving of the cryptocurrency since its launch in 2009 and previous events have triggered price rises of 81 times and 30 times in the 18 month period following the 2012 and 2016 halvings respectively.

But some experts are urging caution over the expectation of a bitcoin bull run.

Glen Goodman, author of The Crypto Trader, told This is Money the halving was driving prices higher because it got a lot of people excited.

"But in a fundamental sense, it doesn't have as big an impact as many people seem to believe. The swings in demand for bitcoin are so huge that they swamp any price-effect the halving may have on the supply side," he added.